The Google Maps duo Lars and Jens Rasmussen had an idea: what if communications technology began with email, IM, phones (and VOIP), etc. all already in place? What would be invented then? Their answer: Google Wave.
During the Google I/O keynote address on Wednesday, Google’s VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra laid out what the company thinks will be the future of the Web.
With the new HTML 5 standard coming, and browser makers poised to jump in with both feet when it does, Google is thinking not about integrated 3D graphics, built-in movie streaming, or any of the other plug-in-less wonders that are promised with HTML5, but instead the search giant is thinking about communication.
Although everyone uses email online and most people use instant messaging and probably other (similar) services like Twitter and Skype, these are currently all separate entities. They don’t mesh well and the apps that do combine them can’t help but be clunky.
But what if they weren’t?
That’s the Google Wave vision outlined in his address:
The vision has become the buzz of the tech news sites. Google’s official blog lays out the idea, in the words of Lars, while TechCrunch has covered it no less than four times so far (that I could find). It even blipped on the O’Reilly radar.
So what’s all the hubub about? Revolutionizing communications on the Internet, for one. If anyone is capable of doing it, it’s Google, I’d say. From the looks of it, that seems to be their plan. This could get interesting.
